Fairer Exchange
Good news from the Royal Exchange, that handsome City nest where Guar- dian Royal Exchange Assurance has cast itself as the cuckoo. GRE, for the sake of giving itself more convenient offices, wants to put two extra storeys on top of the Exchange. I likened this proposal to the Ecclesiastical Insurance tacking itself an extension onto St Paul's: others, in the City and out, have been ruder. The plan has dismayed the owners and customers of the pleasant shops which run round the Ex- change at street level. The shops, like the GRE, are leaseholders, but the plan would enable GRE to push many of them out. Now I learn that GRE's application has had to go into abeyance. This is because the Royal Exchange has suddenly been de-scheduled — meaning that it has ceased to be classified as an ancient monument, and is instead a Grade I listed building. The effect of this is that GRE must now make its planning application to the Cor- poration of the City of London. The Corporation must in turn refer it to the GLC (or must, at any rate, while the GLC lasts) but can certainly express views of its own. If GRE does not like the verdict, it can emulate its neighbour, Peter Palumbo (promoter of the Mies van der Rohe building or City Stump) and try its luck with an appeal to the Secretary of State. The whole process, as Mr Palumbo could tell GRE, is protracted, and chancy, and costly. The de-scheduling of the Royal Exchange gives GRE the cue for second and sensible thoughts.
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